Page:Peter Alexeivitch Kropotkin - The Commune of Paris (1896).djvu/4

4 in the light in which we see it to-day; they did not realise the full purport of the revolution they inaugurated or the fertility of the new principle they tried to put in practice. It was only after they had begun to apply it that its future bearing slowly dawned upon them; it was only afterwards, when the new principle came to be thought out, that it grew definite and precise, and was seen in all its clearness, in all its beauty, its justice, the importance of its results.

During the five or six years that came before the Commune, Socialism had taken a new departure in the spread and rapid growth of the International Working Men's Association. In its local branches and general congresses the workers of Europe met together and took counsel with one another upon the social question as they had never done before. Amongst those who saw that social revolution was inevitable, and were actively busy in making ready for it, one problem above all others seemed to press for solution. "The existing development of industry will force a great economic revolution upon our society; this revolution will abolish private property, will put in common all the capital piled up by previous generations; but, what form of political grouping will be most suited to these changes in our economic system?"

"The grouping must not be merely national," answered the International Working Men's Association, "it must extend across all artificial frontiers and boundary lines." And soon this grand idea sunk into the hearts of the peoples and took fast hold of their minds. Though it has been hunted down ever since by the united efforts of every species of reactionary, it is alive nevertheless, and when the voice of the peoples in revolt shall melt the obstacles to its development, it will reappear stronger than ever before.

But when this vast idea of International Association had been struck out, it still remained to discover what should be the component parts of the federation of the world.

To this question two answers were given, each the expression of a distinct current of thought. One said, The Popular State; the other said, Anarchy.

The German Socialists advocated that the State should take possession of all accumulated wealth and give it over to associations of workers, and further, should organise production and exchange, and generally watch over the life and activities of society.

To them the Socialists of the Latin race, strong in revolutionary